Latest Book Review: Hit Refresh, by Satya Nadella

A few years back, a client recommended Hit Refresh, Satya Nadella’s book on becoming Microsoft’s third CEO and the responsibility he had for turning around, what was then, a declining institution.

I bought it immediately only for it to sit untouched on my shelf for the best part of three years.

Perhaps that was meant to be.

The need to reset and “hit refresh” has become part of my daily language this year as a I help a new client work out where it is going and what an exciting future could look like.

Nadella faced precisely that challenge.

Between Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, Microsoft had effectively delivered on its original ambition of putting “a computer on every desk and in every home.” But that success left both the company and the market asking an altogether more difficult question: What next?

As Nadella writes: “It was time for us to rediscover our soul - what makes us unique.”

Much like the words I preach to my own clients. Leaders have the responsibility of guiding their organisation between where they are now and where they want to be next.

Nadella understood that the world had changed and that Microsoft needed to change too.

He could see the landscape shifting and whilst core technologies that had brought the company to this stage in time would still be important, the business couldn’t rest on its laurels.

So, how did Nadella begin to change its trajectory? Purpose.

He set out to rediscover why Microsoft existed: to reconnect the company to its cause and reignite the passion for all that Microsoft can do and and all it can help people accomplish.

What emerged was empowerment: using technology to give people and organisations the capability and confidence to achieve more than would otherwise be possible.

“Helping people and their organisations achieve more is our sweet spot,” Nadella writes.

Through Nadella, Microsoft committed itself to reinventing productivity so that it could empower every person and every organisation to do more and achieve more.

Perhaps the most striking part of Nadella’s account, however, is not simply what Microsoft pursued. It is how he sought to lead the company there.

Nadella wanted customers to love Microsoft’s products, not simply use them. To achieve that, he needed a leadership team prepared to “lean into each other’s problems, promote dialogue, and be effective.”

In his words, if you were a leader in the business and a partner in its renewal, “the whining is over.” Roll up your sleeves. Get stuck in. Remove barriers. Make things happen - positively.

"Create clarity. Generate energy. Make things happen" as Nadella puts it.

And perhaps that's the lesson I took most strongly from the book.

It is a leader’s responsibility to change things: to challenge complacency, disrupt the status quo and guide an organisation towards new horizons.

How we go about things matters just as much as what we set about intending to accomplish.